Vol. 35(4), 2011 3 Assessment of Post Harvest Losses and Value Addition to Banana Grown in Gujarat P R Davara (LM-10278) and N C Patel (LM-1962) Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh Email: pareshdavara@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The present investigation was undertaken to assess the post-harvest losses and value addition to banana through processing as followed in Gujarat. The effect of various ripening methods on losses was also determined. The study revealed that the overall post-harvest loss in banana after harvesting till ripening was found to be 15.43%, which included losses at field level (0.77%), at traders’ level comprising of transportation and handling losses (5.86%) as well as ripening losses (8.80%). Only negligible losses were observed and reported during the processing of banana. The highest value of actual total loss (16.00%) was observed in case of smoking + room temperature method of ripening, while the lowest loss of 4.66% was observed under the ethephon + air-cooled chamber method. Although, the ethephon + ice treatment method gave ripening loss to the tune of 7.43%, this method was most widely adopted in Gujarat considering its convenience and good appearance of bananas after ripening. The results have emphasized that efforts should be made to adopt improved packaging techniques, cushioning material and refrigeration facilities at the traders’ level during transportation of banana to long distances. It is also recommended from the study that the improved ripening methods like ripening under ethephon + air cooled chamber method should be used during ripening to obtain the good quality banana with the lowest value of losses. Key words: Banana, Post-harvest loss, value addition INTRODUCTION Banana is one of the most important fruit crops grown in India. Considering the nutritive value and fruit value of banana, it could be considered as “poor man’s apple” and it is cheapest among all other fruits in the country (Shanmugavelu et al., 1992). India is the largest producer of banana in the world. Gujarat is the third largest producer of the banana in India after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra (Annonymous, 2009). Though, banana is produced in substantial quantity, losses are found to occur at different stages of handling after harvest. Bananas are harvested at various stages of its maturity depending upon distance to market and the purpose for which it is cultivated, such as culinary, table purpose, etc. Most commonly the fruit is harvested when the ridges on the surface of the skin changed from angular to round i.e., after attainment of the three-fourths full stage (Kotecha and Desai, 1995). Harvested bananas in Gujarat are then either stored for ripening or sold as raw/fresh fruit. None of the farmers go for the processing of bananas, because operations for banana processing are very tedious, time consuming and expensive. During the market glut, the prices crash down and the farmers suffer heavy losses due to the distress sale. Due to poor transportation and storage facilities, a sizeable quantity of this fruit is wasted due to its perishable nature. The total estimated loss during post harvest handling of banana in Assam was about 22% (Anonymous, 2005). Whereas the same was about 19 to 21% in Tamil Nadu (Gajanana et al., 2002) and about 18 to 29% in Karnataka (Sreenivasa et al., 2002). Great potentialities exist for reducing the post-harvest losses by providing an improved post- harvest practices and value addition through processing of banana. Processing and product